These few main warm-up ideas can be used before a practice, match, or just for fun. They also can be added to or taken away from as your coach sees fit.
They are listed in a suggested order, but again, they do not have to be done in this order:
Volleyball Warm-Up No.1: Ball Throw
A ball is needed for this drill. Find a partner and stand across the court from each other. Using your hitting arm throw the ball back and forth to each to other warming up your hitting shoulder and arm. This only needs to be done for a couple of minutes to loosen up the shoulder joint.
Volleyball Warm-Up No.2: Spike Drill
A ball is needed for this drill. Find a partner and stand across the court from each other. Throw the ball up into the air and spike it down into the ground so that after once bounce it should reach your partner. Do this only as long as it takes to warm-up your shoulder.
Volleyball Warm-Up No.3: Setting Drill
A ball is needed for this drill. Standing about ten feet apart set the ball back and forth. As your forearms loosen up try and move the distance back so that you are setting from further away.
Volleyball Warm-Up No.4: Passing Drill
A ball is needed for this drill. Standing about ten feet apart start passing the ball back and forth, concentrating on making good passes to your partner.
Volleyball Warm-Up No.5: Pepper
A ball is needed for this drill. Using a partner stand about ten feet apart from each other. The partner starting with the ball tosses it to his partner who passes the ball back to him. The partner then sets the ball back to the other partner, who in turn spikes the ball back to the other partner.
After digging the ball back to the other partner the process is repeated continuously. The object of this warm-up is to, under control, practice the three fundamental aspects of volleyball-passing, setting, and hitting. In essence, the partners are playing a match back and forth.
Volleyball Warm-Up No.6: Defense
This team drill requires at least ten balls and is a great way to warm-up the team's passing skills before a match. The coach needs a bunch of balls at his side, a line of players opposite him, and one "setter" off to the right side between the coach and players. The coach tosses the ball (he can spike or throw it hard too) at the first player in line who passes it to the setter.
The player who passed the ball moves to setter with the person behind him taking his place and the setter hands the ball to the coach. The balls at the coach's side are there to keep the drill flowing; he has a constant supply of balls to keep the drill moving in case there is a bad pass that needs to be chased.
Volleyball Warm-Up No.7: Hitting
This warm-up requires a minimum of three balls and is great for hitting just before game or practice time. The setter assumes his position of right front. There is a shagger on the opposite side of the court, a line of outside hitters, a line of middle hitters, a line of right side hitters, and the coach standing to the right of the middle hitters tossing a ball to the setter to set.
Once the coach tosses the ball to the setter, the setter sets it to the outside hitter to hit. The outside hitter then takes the place of the shagger who has shagged the outside hitters ball and the shagger will take the outside hitters place in any of the hitting lines.
The coach then tosses the ball to the setter who sets the middle hitter and the process is repeated to again. The right side hitter receives the next set and the drill moves back to the outside hitting line. Players can fill in and hit form any line they choose; however, it is more practical for the players to hit from the spot in which they would normally hit form in a game.
Volleyball Warm-Up No.8: Serving
This drill requires an equal amount of players on either side of the net and a ball for each player. This is just a quick serving warm-up. Players spread themselves out across the back line and serve the ball to the other side. Both sides are serving at once so there are always balls coming over to grab and serve back.
There is the potential to be hit by a wild serve, but since the players are serving from outside of the court and most balls should be landing in the court it is a relatively safe drill.